Un United Only Against The U.s.

It costs us almost $200 million a year to belong to the United Nations, which is a little like paying somebody to beat you up.

The UN began with a noble purpose, but it has become about as useful as a deflated beachball. Some UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization, do good things. But the General Assembly and the Security Council have become forums to see what goofy resolution the United States will abstain from, vote against or veto.

Last week, the media were going semi-nuts because it is the 40th anniversary of the UN and many world leaders have been making speeches. I broke my rule of paying no attention to anything said at the UN by listening to a speech by Yasuhiro Nakasone, the prime minister of Japan.

I wrote about Nakasone last August. It was the 40th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nakasone, with the help of many Americans, was beating up on the U.S. He was interviewed by NBC`s Tom Brokaw, who asked him whether the atomic bomb maybe saved Japan from the military-industrial clique that had plunged that nation into war.

Nakasone did not think so. He said the bombings were inhuman acts and war crimes. I waited for him to also mention Pearl Harbor or the Bataan Death March, but he did not. In Nakasone`s mind, we were the war criminals and the Japanese were the innocent victims.

I wrote a column disagreeing with that. And I have just now finished answering the more than 1,000 letters I got in response. The letters came from people who remember World War II in a very direct way--they fought in that war or had loved ones who did. A lot of them think what they went through has been forgotten or misunderstood.

Jack E. Horsley, of Mattoon, Ill.: ``A delay in my orders to active duty as a reservist precluded my having been at Manila or Hickam Field (Hawaii) on Dec. 7. Two of my classmates were killed in the Bataan march. One died at Pearl Harbor.

``Although the horrors of nuclear arms are shocking, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were legitimate targets in a fierce war.``

Wilnet Houwink van Berkum, of Baltimore: ``Aug. 17th is the 40th anniversary of my liberation, at age 16, from Camp Gedangan, a Japanese concentration camp for women and children on Java, Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies.

``Aug. 17 is also the 40th anniversary of my husband`s liberaton from Camp Tjikoedapateuk, a Japanese concentration camp on Java for men and boys over 10 years of age.

``The people in these camps were slowly being starved to death and were slated for extermination. My husband and I are eternally grateful that the United States had the courage to use the only method available to bring the war to a rapid end. Without it, we and our families would not be alive today. ``Sadly, this month is also the 40th anniversary of the death of my husband`s mother in yet another of the many concentration camps in the Pacific theater. The atom bomb fell too late for her.``

Walter Smith, of Kalamazoo, Mich.: ``As a Navy veteran who was waiting in a staging area on the island of Guam in August, 1945, I feel I`m alive today because of the bombs dropped on Japan.

``To all those who feel so bad and so guilty about America dropping those two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I suggest they take the Bataan Death March. Last Dec. 7, I searched the newspapers. You know what? They don`t even write about Pearl Harbor anymore. But I remember it. Even if everyone else has forgotten.``

I`m not bringing up these letters to revive old wounds. But having criticized Nakasone last August, I think I should mention what he said at the UN last week.

His speech was mostly about trade, but he talked about war:

When the UN charter was signed in San Francisco in June, 1945, Japan was waging a desperate and lone war against about 40 countries. Since the end of that war, Japan has profoundly regretted the ultranationalism and militarism it unleashed and the untold suffering the war inflicted upon people around the world and upon its own people.

Nakasone`s profound regret may not be enough to satisfy many of the people who wrote me.